Volunteers find their own rewards
Pamela Iong Kun-kun, learned the value of doing homework on one of her assignments as a games volunteer. Iong, 21, was asked to host the Chinese shooting team during the games' test event shooting invitational in August. It entailed greeting them at the airport, taking them to settle down at the hotel, and accompanying them throughout their stay in Macau.
Iong had no idea she would be in close contact with China's Olympic champions, until she recognised Wang Yifu's name on the VIP list. Wang, 44, a veteran shooter from Liaoning, has been winning medals since the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984.
'I received the assignment only the day before, so I had no time to do my homework and learn about the team,' says Iong, a student association leader and graduate of the Institute for Tourism Studies.
'After taking them back to the hotel the first evening, I rushed home and looked up the internet. Several others on the team, such as Yang Ling, turned out to be Olympic medallists. The next day I treated the whole team with extra respect.'
Iong was among the first to join the 18,000 volunteers who are helping to make Macau's East Asian Games possible. Volunteer training started in June 2003. The organising committee first approached the numerous associations in Macau, such as Iong's student association, recruiting their leaders for the programme. Once the leaders were trained, they went back to their associations and recruited their members to get involved.
Apart from meeting world-class athletes in person, volunteers also have had the chance to travel abroad and learn about the preparation of other international sports events.
Some paid a visit to the 2008 Beijing Organising Committee of the Olympic Games. Others attended the annual meeting of the Olympic Committee of Portugal held in March in Santa Maria de Feira, Portugal.
For Eduardo Claudio Luis, a retired civil servant and an official at the Macau Association of Dragon Boats, volunteering for these games has been so fruitful he has already signed up to volunteer at the Lusofonia Games (the Portuguese-speaking games) to be held in Macau next year.
Luis, whose volunteer duties include logistics at soccer, track and field, hockey and bowling events, has been treating the games as his full-time job. 'I am a sports fanatic so it is great to make friends with others who love sports,' he says.
